Electronic Communication


Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6

Lesson Objectives

  • To understand different methods of electronic communication
  • To explore electronic communication and evaluate its effectiveness

Starter

Loyalty Cards - List 5 reasons a company wants you to have a loyalty card.
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Key Terms

Fax - a machine that copies and sends documents through a telephone line
Loyalty card - a means by which the buying habits of a customer can be tracked. The customer gets benefits in return.
Customer profile - a description of the characteristics of buyers
Just-in-time - a stock control system which helps manufacturers keep control over costs by keeping stocks to a minimum
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Web Based Electronic Communication

Much of the electronic communication we see today is web based. Companies have embraced the web and used it to promote their businesses and share information with customers. Using social networking they build connections to their customer base. Take a look at what Marks & Spencer do to connect.
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And at what they do to keep stakeholders informed about the business - they have a whole other site.

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Email

Email is widely used both internally and externally by businesses, it is a quick easy way for stakeholders to stay in touch with the business but is really just that. Emails should be concise and to the point and because they are not always received, they should NOT be used to send important information that needs to be documented with a paper trail.

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Fax

Faxes are becoming less and less useful in the modern business environment. Sending someone a fax basically scans your document and prints it at their end. To do so both people need a fax machine, connected to telephone lines. Today it is far more likely that someone would scan the document and email it as an attachment.

Apps

Business apps allow stakeholders to interact in many ways, even to pay!
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Task - Loyalty Cards

The loyalty card is more than just a means of rewarding customers. It is a means of gathering data about customers, their shopping habits, their family, their spending power etc. In pairs make a mind map of the information your local supermarket knows about your family.

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Plenary

Just-in-time stock control helps manufacturers and retailers manage their businesses by allowing them to order stock/supplies when they will need them rather than keeping them on site. Explain to your neighbour how this works in your local supermarket.